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Rarest book?


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History of the Welch Regiment. Abe Books told me they had 'found' a copy. I gritted my teeth, opened my wallet and ordered it...out of print, published 1932. Should be with me tomorrow.

I'm very happy. If a bit short of cash...

Bernard

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  • 5 years later...

Having joined the Forum long after this topic was done with I hope members won't mind me reviving it.

I've been collecting personal memoirs and novels for nearly 40 years now and there can't be many titles I've not seen at some time. Like many collectors it has to be a first edition and in its dust jacket. I know that might seem to be rather precious to non-collectors but the jacket really does matter as it often carries information on the author not given in the book and shows how the book was originally marketed to the public. With that in mind here are a few titles I've seen only once in their full original state:-

Daryl Klein 'With the Chinks'

Barbusse 'Under Fire' - reprinted many times but the 1916 original is rare.

Georg Bucher 'In the Line' - saw it 25 years ago and failed to buy it.

Haslam 'Cannon Fodder' - super abstract jacket of an exploding shell.

Lucy 'Devil in the Drum' - just a simple drum on the jacket.

Adams 'Nothing of Importance'

Lloyd 'Trooper in the Tins' - splendid wrap around jacket showing a parade of the Lifeguards.

Hope 'Winding Road Unfolds'

Morton 'Barber of Putney' - the 1930 reprint shows the barber cutting a man's hair which throws the shadow of a soldier on the wall behind. I've never seen a copy of the 1919 original.

Sapper's 'Human Touch' -a common enough book but the jacket seems to have vanished into oblivion.

Plus 'The War Diary of the Master of Belhaven' & 'The War the Infantry Knew' -both rare as hen's teeth but they both originally came jacketed.

Ps. A couple of points from the earlier posts.

1. Why bother with the relatively common 1926 'Seven Pillars' when you could go for the 1922 issue. Apparently there are still 2 copies in private hands and I imagine a couple of million quid would probably get you one. Actually I'm waiting for the 1919 manuscript that Lawrence left on Reading Station -it's propably still waiting in a BR lost property office even now!

2. Whilst the Underhill is undoubtedly rare anyone searching for it under the title 'A Year on the Western Front' will be disappointed. That title was only given to it by the London Stamp Exchange for its reprint. The original is simply called 'Edward Samuel Underhill'

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From my own parochial perspective,"Snap Shots of the 15th Battalion The Prince of Wales's Own (West Yorkshire Regiment")published by Richard Jackson 1917). It has 47 early photographs of Fovant Camp. The National Army Museum has a copy, and I wouldn't mind my own.

Moonraker

Eventually I managed to acquire a copy at a very reasonable price through eBay.

(How did we cope before the Web? Forlorn approaches and visits to second-hand booskhops ....)

Moonraker

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Having joined the Forum long after this topic was done with I hope members won't mind me reviving it.

I've been collecting personal memoirs and novels for nearly 40 years now and there can't be many titles I've not seen at some time. Like many collectors it has to be a first edition and in its dust jacket. I know that might seem to be rather precious to non-collectors but the jacket really does matter as it often carries information on the author not given in the book and shows how the book was originally marketed to the public. With that in mind here are a few titles I've seen only once in their full original state:-

Daryl Klein 'With the Chinks'

Barbusse 'Under Fire' - reprinted many times but the 1916 original is rare.

Georg Bucher 'In the Line' - saw it 25 years ago and failed to buy it.

Haslam 'Cannon Fodder' - super abstract jacket of an exploding shell.

Lucy 'Devil in the Drum' - just a simple drum on the jacket.

Adams 'Nothing of Importance'

Lloyd 'Trooper in the Tins' - splendid wrap around jacket showing a parade of the Lifeguards.

Hope 'Winding Road Unfolds'

I have jacketed copies of "Nothing of Importance" and "The Winding Road Unfolds", when I purchased the former there was another

jacketed copy for sale as well (ABE) a bit like buses all coming at once!, the latter I got from the U.S.A via a chap who undertook

book searches (pre-internet),it is a very fine copy in a fine jacket and although it cost me a hundred pounds that seems quite reasonable

now. The books that I have found the hardest to find so far are "The Truth from the Trenches" and "Scotland yet!" by H. Drummond Gauld, his

other non-war books seem common but these two I would class as rare.

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Rarest for me and my most highly prized books:

The Morayshire Roll of Honour. It was £500 or £800 on Amazon. Now there are three copies and the middle one at £600 states the boards are only hanging by a thread. I managed to get mine from a great guy in Nairn that sold it to me for £80. I had to give him some names to prove I had relatives in it first. Then he sent it to me to see if I agreed with his price. I was so happy, I paid his price and his postage too.

Campaign Reminiscences: 6th Seaforth Highlanders by Capt. AH Macdonald and Capt. RT Peel. I managed to get a copy thanks to a tip off on the Forum from Charles Messenger. Again, having relatives that served in the 6th Bn. helped as the seller wanted to keep it in the country and there were others interested. It is signed inside by Lt. Col. John Grant Smith. The seller said someone had written their name inside but I recognised the signature from the war diaries!

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With very many thanks to Dust Jacket Collecter i managed toget a copy of "Croney`s luck" although printed in 1965 proved very difficult indeed to find, i have a list of about 20 books that i have been looking for about 10 years and still no luck but i hope to live for about another 30 years so there is still hope!

Another very scarce item "Combat in and over Delville wood" by betteridge, rumour has it about 5/10 copies printed for the family,there was a copy for sale from a dealer in south africa a lillte while ago for a not inconsiderable sum.

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just picked up on this thread again. I consider there is a difference between desirability and value. Like Dave G I spent a long time llking for a copy Ackerman's 'Are we Civilised' for the on-going work about English translations of German and Austro Hungarian personal accounts and novels. It was well worth the hunt.

I think quite a number of the translation I have found are pretty rare. a number have taken a lot of searching to track down. And the search goes on. So far I have bought in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand and the USA.

As for rarity I suppose a vellum bound copy of Ballard's biography of the Zulu dodger Smith Dorrien. It turned out to be an association copy when I found it in an antique shop in the Kings Road (as a display item set amongst other old books on some of the furniture for sale). When I flipped through it there was an inscription to Lady SD from the author written, carelessly and obviously in error, on the final page upside down. It had been missed by the seller. It cost me a couple of quid.

You only have this kind of look if you look for it. Often in the most surprising places. I'll never forget the book dealer who told me that he had found a signed English language copy of Copse 125. Where? In the gardening section of a general book dealer.

A particular pleasure was the regimental history of the Kings African Rifles, in which a relative commanded a battalion. It is a scarce book rather than genuinely rare, but now worth very much than I paid for it - but like the others treasures not for sale, regardless of 'value'.

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Not WWI, I know, but a book I've always been on the look-out for as my gg uncle served with this unit in South Africa earlier in his military career:

69th Battery R.F.A. Diary of the Boer War, Multan, 1902

I've never seen it for sale or even in a reference library!

All the best

Steve

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I suppose the rarest books are the ones you've never even heard of. After years of collecting I'm still turning up things that don't figure in bibliographies or catalogues. They're generally printed locally & privately in small editions. William Tyrrell's 'With Motor Transport in British East Africa' is a fascinating memoir of that campaign which shows how close the whole thing must have come to disaster. Completely new to me and fortunately only a few pounds on EBay . For those of you with a few more pennies, Peter Harrington has it for £350 (mind you they want £2500 for Lushington's 'Gambardier' as well!)

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Ah the age old question about defining value. Everything has a monetary value as the Library of Congress says, "It's is purely what some one is prepared to pay for it". I and my farther a travel guide collector have a simple formula for a book to cost a large sum of money:

1.To be wanted by more than one person:

2. Who perceives it to be scarce; and

3. Is has the money to pay for it.

Now all the real bibliophile fiends I know who have extensive collections, compile their own bibliography are better than any published work, and always invest in published ones.

Some of my best buys have been when the seller has not known what the book is, for example: the Official History of the Administration of the Blockade from Magg Bros under 20 quid in their Travel catalogue, selling parts of the Foreign Office Library and the heavily annotated proof copy of Whites Regiments, Guildford Book fair 10 quid off a dealer who thought its was a dis-bound copy. Best every military book ever: Collingwood's Signals and Fighting Instructions 1799 with additions by Lord Nelson, now that is priceless, Harrington's have a much inferior later manuscript copy that does not have the Trafalgar amendments or secret rendezvous list, a mere snip at £27,500!

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I have The Land-locked Lake, a signed and numbered copy by Hanbury-Sparrow, I really have no idea of it's rarity, I think it was privately printed.

khaki

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Probably the 1977 edition limited to 500 copies. Not seen it for some time but I'd guess £150 - £200

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Probably the 1977 edition limited to 500 copies. Not seen it for some time but I'd guess £150 - £200

The author had it reprinted when he lived in Australia, i sold my copy for about ninety pounds when I managed to find an

original copy. I was thinking of keeping it as it was signed and contained some good photographs of the author as well as

revues for the original edition. My copy however, had a blank text page(printers error)and the original copy I found was signed and

dedicated as well as having a dust jacket, I also really wanted to concentrate on collecting original copies so I decided to sell it.

You don't see many copies of the reprint for sale but the last copy I saw for sale on ABE was priced at around two hundred pounds.

I don't know why this book (together with Tilsley's "other ranks") have not been reprinted ,I hope they will be in the coming years.

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Mine is probably not that special but its something I haven't seen for sale that often, its a bit tatty and foxed but its mine.

The Wipers Times: A facsimile reprint of the trench magazines: The Wipers Times-The New Church Times-The Kemmel Times-The Somme Times-The B.E.F. Times, Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1918

Or Colin Hughes, - Mametz, Lloyd Georges Welsh Army at the Battle of the Somme. only seen 2 copies on ebay in the last 5 years and its never sold for for under £50.

Gaz

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Ah the age old question about defining value. Everything has a monetary value as the Library of Congress says, "It's is purely what some one is prepared to pay for it". I and my farther a travel guide collector have a simple formula for a book to cost a large sum of money:

1.To be wanted by more than one person:

2. Who perceives it to be scarce; and

3. Is has the money to pay for it.

Now all the real bibliophile fiends I know who have extensive collections, compile their own bibliography are better than any published work, and always invest in published ones.

Some of my best buys have been when the seller has not known what the book is, for example: the Official History of the Administration of the Blockade from Magg Bros under 20 quid in their Travel catalogue, selling parts of the Foreign Office Library and the heavily annotated proof copy of Whites Regiments, Guildford Book fair 10 quid off a dealer who thought its was a dis-bound copy. Best every military book ever: Collingwood's Signals and Fighting Instructions 1799 with additions by Lord Nelson, now that is priceless, Harrington's have a much inferior later manuscript copy that does not have the Trafalgar amendments or secret rendezvous list, a mere snip at £27,500!

Ah the age old question about defining value. Everything has a monetary value as the Library of Congress says, "It's is purely what some one is prepared to pay for it". I and my farther a travel guide collector have a simple formula for a book to cost a large sum of money:

1.To be wanted by more than one person:

2. Who perceives it to be scarce; and

3. Is has the money to pay for it.

Now all the real bibliophile fiends I know who have extensive collections, compile their own bibliography are better than any published work, and always invest in published ones.

Some of my best buys have been when the seller has not known what the book is, for example: the Official History of the Administration of the Blockade from Magg Bros under 20 quid in their Travel catalogue, selling parts of the Foreign Office Library and the heavily annotated proof copy of Whites Regiments, Guildford Book fair 10 quid off a dealer who thought its was a dis-bound copy. Best every military book ever: Collingwood's Signals and Fighting Instructions 1799 with additions by Lord Nelson, now that is priceless, Harrington's have a much inferior later manuscript copy that does not have the Trafalgar amendments or secret rendezvous list, a mere snip at £27,500!

as Lord Nelson is a relation i do feel this book should really be in my possesion lol {i will pay the postage} :whistle:

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as Lord Nelson is a relation i do feel this book should really be in my possesion lol {i will pay the postage} :whistle:

Join the back of the queue please, the left one, and get ready to recount the important flags used at Trafalgar :whistle:

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At the moment for me its "A Kitchener Man's Bit: An Account of the Great War 1914-1918" by Gerald V Dennis

Nick

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Mine is probably not that special but its something I haven't seen for sale that often, its a bit tatty and foxed but its mine.

The Wipers Times: A facsimile reprint of the trench magazines: The Wipers Times-The New Church Times-The Kemmel Times-The Somme Times-The B.E.F. Times, Herbert Jenkins Ltd., 1918

Or Colin Hughes, - Mametz, Lloyd Georges Welsh Army at the Battle of the Somme. only seen 2 copies on ebay in the last 5 years and its never sold for for under £50.

Gaz

I have an old copy of the facsimile of trench magazines book published in 1918, but only of the BEF Times, yours must be bigger. I've wondered about the rarity of mine too

I did enjoy the humour in it though and bought it a while before the new and more recent facsimile copies of Wiper Times were published in the large volume

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I was at an antiques shop in S-on-Avon last week looking amongst other things for WW1 books to go with my growing collection, my daughter came across a book entitled 'Somme Harvest' by Giles E M Eyre printed 1938. Immediately snapped this up for the princely sum of £2. Not bad condition. Delighted and looking forward to reading it. This is the oldest printed book in my collection at the moment. Mike

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I was at an antiques shop in S-on-Avon last week looking amongst other things for WW1 books to go with my growing collection, my daughter came across a book entitled 'Somme Harvest' by Giles E M Eyre printed 1938. Immediately snapped this up for the princely sum of £2. Not bad condition. Delighted and looking forward to reading it. This is the oldest printed book in my collection at the moment. Mike

Great find, a classic Great War memoir and because of it's publication on the eve of the second world war, when the sale of war books

had slumped, it sold few copies and it is a very hard book to find in the original edition, well done.

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Paling into insignicance when compared with the other titles mentoned here, I was still extremely chuffed to pick up a copy of "Pi in the Sky" by W F J Harvey last week at a reasonable price. I had memories of reading his "A straggler from 14-18" articles in Air Pictorial (I think!) and had been after a copy for ages.

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56th Squadron RFC/RAF 1916-1922. Not sure how many copies exist, it was never published. IWM hold one

Sixth Battalion Devonshire Regiment in the Great War

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  • 1 month later...

I was at an antiques shop in S-on-Avon last week looking amongst other things for WW1 books to go with my growing collection, my daughter came across a book entitled 'Somme Harvest' by Giles E M Eyre printed 1938. Immediately snapped this up for the princely sum of £2. Not bad condition. Delighted and looking forward to reading it. This is the oldest printed book in my collection at the moment. Mike

I have just completed my £2 book Somme Harvest, 1938 edition. I absolutely loved it. What a book. Written in it's age, lovely English, descriptive of what went on, and you could feel what it was like for him to both lose his mates and how it affected him. One used to think that the phrase, 'stiff upper lip' only applied to that other class of people, but what these guys had to put up with on a daily basis and what they went through makes you wonder how on earth these guys came through this and carried on with their normal lives - well I don't know. A great book and all the better for reading through the first edition with it's slightly musty smell. Incredible. Mike

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Yesterday's purchase which I'm now reading must be one of the scarcest - 'Three Years on Active Service and Eight Months as a Prisoner of War' by Henry Arthur Foley, privately printed in Bridgwater in 1920. It is a very detailed account of his service with the 6th & 7th Somerset Light Infantry throughout the War both as a ranker & an officer. Detailed descriptions of Ypres & the Somme. A book which strangely hasn't been e-booked or printed on demand but would surely rank with some of the other classics if it were reprinted.

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Yesterday's purchase which I'm now reading must be one of the scarcest - 'Three Years on Active Service and Eight Months as a Prisoner of War' by Henry Arthur Foley, privately printed in Bridgwater in 1920. It is a very detailed account of his service with the 6th & 7th Somerset Light Infantry throughout the War both as a ranker & an officer. Detailed descriptions of Ypres & the Somme. A book which strangely hasn't been e-booked or printed on demand but would surely rank with some of the other classics if it were reprinted.

According to Gerald Gliddon in his book " Legacy of the Somme" Henry Arthur Foley died aged 95 in Stoke Mandeville Hospital. Actually "Legacy of the Somme" is quite

a handy book as it contains lists of books and films about the Somme, including a memoirs and autobiography section. When I purchased it the bookseller said "Ah, a list

of books you can't find anywhere", which made me even more determined to try and find them, and I almost have (well the memoirs and autobiographies that is).

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